[Commander47]

I have been working on a Bren and pretty much following "Pirates" plans on Projectguns.com.

I have a Jumanra Jig which makes things easier and nicer. Everything lines up perfectly and there are slots milled into the jig for the copper plates. Very nice.

Anyway, there was a thread on here a while back about welding and I thought I'd put in two cents worth. I have a MIG wire welder that uses flux core .30 wire.

I am having absolutely no trouble at all getting deep, solid relatively clean welds. Not as clean as a Gas Welder, but pretty clean nonetheless. What I do is take a wet towel and surround the parts not being welded so the flying slag doesn't stick to anything.

I put a little extra weld along the top corner so I could grind a nice clean edge. I also built up a little extra weld in charging slot to mill that correctly.

The steel is very high quality and welds very easily. I made one small filler piece from my extra kit, but other than than, the parts I have prepared fit together so tight I haven't had to do much of anything except clean up, line up and weld.

What is nice is that all the markings are intact.

 

[CaptMax]

I have a nice 3 cut IO kit that I will be doing soon, Thanks for the tips. I think I will TIG weld using both pre & post heat treatments. Do you have anymore Bren kits to build? Reason I ask is I wondered if you were going to sell your jig or would rent it out? Let me know. Will you be using Pirates semi parts on your kit?
and what type of finish will you be doing?
CaptMax

 

[CaliBoundAR15]

Is Pirate currently doing the semi parts for these? Last I heard, he wouldn't be starting on them for a little bit...

 

[Commander47]

Pirate is doing semi parts.

He has a great tutorial on his site, and has set up a forum to discuss and talk about Bren projects.

I've cleaned up the welds on my tail piece and will try to post pics as this project proceeds.

It is a good project. I've already machined my internals and the welding is going very well. I have a few tiny little imperfections, but nothing that won't be completely filled in with Duracoat.

 

[pdembek]

Welding Splatter

You may want to pick up some welding Anti-Splatter Spray at your welding supply store. Spray down the piece before you weld and it will keep all that splatter from sticking. It will save you a lot of time grinding it off when your done.

 

[ScottD]

Wow, your welding looks better than mine. (The welding post was mine) What seems to happen to me is I get low spots from where I stop one weld and start another, so I get little crevaces and pits. Call me crazy, but I kind of like some small cosmetic imperfections, it serves to show people that
i really did build it myself.


What brand welder? Im wondering if my cheap HF model might be contributing to the problem.

 

[kzguns]

you wont get that with gas. if you stop you must clean the area befor you start again cuz the slag will cause you problems. With the gas you can just keep going and u wont get pockets like the flux wire gives you. I would spring for the gas conversion once i did that my welds look like a pro did them it really make a big diff.

 

[glockhead]

i agree with the gas

we used flux core on the first one we did and had allot of spatter but we built a reverse jig and ran it through the milling machine which cleaned things up nicely and quickly.

tough tough build for me. i'm still having problems and i'm putting it away for awhile and i'll take it out again in a month or so

 

[Upandatum]

I'm trying to spring for a gas conversion too.. Got so tired of cleaning up the splatter I just stopped..

I'll get the conversion soon..

Keep up the good work and post some completed pic's too...

Tim

 

[CaliBoundAR15]

Yeah, a MIG with gas works awesome. Here is a pic of one of my welds. I need to contact Pirate if he is doing the conversions on the internals now. Anybody know what he charges off the top of their head?

 

[Commander47]

OH yeah.....I need a gas conversion. That looks really good.

 

[ScottD]

Man, my welds look like a retarded 3rd grader compared to that. No offence to any challenged third graders out there.

Pirate has his semi Bren stuff up for sale! I shot him an email last night for purchase, Im waiting to hear back from him to confirm!